Read Bleeding Out for Free Online Page B

young man shrugged.
    “What’s it to you?”
    Noah shrugged back.
    “What do you know about this girl?” he asked, slapping a color picture of Melissa Agoura under Sproul’s nose.
    Sproul peered closer, then squirmed back against his chair.
    “Who the fuck is she?” he asked, glancing up at the detectives.
    “Melissa Agoura. Recognize her?”
    Sproul eyed the ugly picture again.
    “Uh-uh. What happened to her?”
    “You tell us,” Noah said.
    “Fuck if I know.”
    Then they could see it dawning on him.
    “You think I did this?”
    “Did you?”
    “Fuck no! I’m a junkie, not a murderer,” he said sincerely.
    “There’s no law says you can’t be both.”
    “Well I’m not.”
    “Why don’t you tell us about the 288 you got pulled on?”
    “The what?”
    “The little incident when you were arrested for accosting women on the street?”
    “Aw, shit, that wasn’t anything,” Sproul said dismissively. “I was messed up. Just being stupid with my friends.”
    “Doesn’t seem like you got a lot of respect for the ladies.”
    “I got plenty, I was just fooling around. Didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”
    “Maybe you didn’t mean nothin’ when you started batting her around—”
    “—I never touched her! I don’t even know who she is. I never seen her before now.”
    Noah changed tack.
    “You know where the Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area is?”
    Sproul was puzzled by the switch but answered affirmatively.
    “You ever been there?”
    “Yeah. Lots of times.”
    “What do you go there for?”
    Sproul hesitated, obviously reluctant to answer. The detectives pushed and he copped to meeting his dealer there.
    “Did you ever see her there?”
    Noah slid a family photo of Agoura across the scarred table. Sproul looked at it carefully.
    “No. She the one who got beat up?”
    “What do you do when you’re in the park waiting to score?”
    “I don’t know. Just hang out.”
    “You ever talk to anybody?”
    “I don’t know. It’s not like I’m hanging around a lotta people when I’m trying to make a deal go down, you know?”
    “Think. Who have you ever talked to?”
    “I don’t know.”
    They could see him thinking.
    “Maybe I’ve said hi to the guy picking up trash. Or the girl at the entrance.”
    “What girl?”
    “The one in the booth as you come in.”
    “You ever said hello to any other girls?”
    “I can’t remember. I don’t think so, at least none I remember.”
    Noah asked Sproul where he was on October 19th and Sproul laughed.
    “Like I know just off the top of my head.”
    “It was a Sunday. What do you normally do on Sundays?”
    “That’s the weekend. I don’t know what I was doing. I coulda been doin’ anything.”
    “Like what? What do you like to do when you’re not working or chipping?”
    Frank watched silently as Sproul groped for answers. Noah asked about other dates, then changed subjects and quizzed Sproul about his social life. Sproul was answering easily, willingly. He was leaning over the table, facing Noah with his hands open, holding his gaze easily. Frank didn’t get any indication that Sproul was their man, but she let Noah play out the interview.
    An hour later he stood and motioned Frank to follow him outside.
    “I don’t think this kid knows shit,” he said.
    “I don’t either. Let’s lose him.”
    They went back into the box.
    “Mr. Sproul, do you have any vacation plans?”
    “No.”
    “So if we came to find you at home in a day or two, or at work, you’d be there?”
    “Well, yeah. I mean if I wasn’t out, or…”
    “Or what?” Frank asked.
    “Or in jail.”
    “Why would you be in jail?”
    “Felony possession,” he reminded her patiently.
    “We’re going to let you go, Mr. Sproul. Don’t leave town. Here’s our number. If you have to leave you’d better call us first or you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
    Sproul couldn’t believe he was being let go.
    “What’s the catch?”
    “No catch. Let’s just say